Cultural Appropriation and Traditional Healing Products: How to Buy and Learn Respectfully

Why this matters for health shoppers

Many traditional healing products come from particular peoples, plants and places. When the products are copied, mass-marketed or taken from the wild, the communities that tend that knowledge can lose access, credit and income, and the plants can be harmed. This page offers questions to ask, not rules from any community. We are not an Indigenous organization, we speak for no nation, and different communities hold different views. Where a community has published its own guidance, follow that over ours.

What Indigenous rights frameworks say

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices. [1] It also affirms their right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, including medicines and knowledge of the properties of flora and fauna. [1] These are statements of principle. They explain why many communities ask for permission, credit and benefit-sharing. See traditional knowledge protection and benefit sharing.

A documented example: white sage

White sage (Salvia apiana) is native only to Southern California and northern Baja. [2] A 2022 Los Angeles Times report, hosted by the California Native Plant Society, describes a global rise in white sage smudge sticks and a patrol worker who said poaching in one preserve had increased dramatically over eight years. [2] The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash environmental director quoted there said that smudgers are appropriating and trivializing the traditions of Chumash, Tongva and other Southern California Indigenous peoples, and unwittingly helping destroy the few remaining wild stands. [2] This is a news report with named sources, not a study, and we did not find an independent total of how much sage is poached.

The same report notes that smudging is done by many cultures using plants native to their regions, and that it is not clear why the global trend fixated on white sage. [2] For the cultural and air-quality picture, see smudging and white sage.

Questions to ask before you buy

These questions follow the advice quoted in the Los Angeles Times report and the principles above. They are not a certification.

• Who grew or harvested this, and where? One source in the report says that if a supplier cannot tell you exactly who grew a plant and where, you should stop buying and boycott that supplier. [2]
• Is it wild-harvested? Advocates quoted there urge people to boycott wild-harvested products and grow their own. [2] "Sustainably harvested" with no detail does not answer the question.
• Does the seller name a community connection? A real connection comes with a named community, grower or business, not just words like "ancestral," "shaman-made" or "sacred." See claim check: "authentic," "sacred" and "shaman-made" marketing.
• Is this something the community shares publicly? Some items and practices are restricted. If a product promises ceremony, initiation or sacred-plant "access," treat that as a red flag. See Indigenous knowledge: what is public and what is restricted.
• Are you being given medical promises? "Traditional" is not a safety label. See reading "traditionally used for" claims on labels.

Tools communities use

Some communities use tools to state their own conditions. Local Contexts' Traditional Knowledge Labels let communities express local conditions for sharing and engaging with their knowledge, consistent with existing community rules and protocols. [3] They cover, for example, sacred or ceremonial material and material with gender restrictions or seasonal conditions. [3] If you see such a label, follow it.

In the United States, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 is a truth-in-advertising law against misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian art and craft products. [4] The page we read describes it in terms of arts and crafts such as jewelry, pottery, baskets and clothing, and says an "Indian" under the Act is a member of a federally or officially State recognized tribe, or a certified Indian artisan. [4] We did not find it described as covering herbs or smudge, so do not assume it protects those products.

Learning respectfully

• Learn from teachers whom the community recognizes, and be ready to hear "no."
• Do not copy ceremonies or wear regalia as a trend.
• Pay fairly, credit by name, and do not resell what you were taught.
• Accept that you might not be the right person to hold a practice.

See cultural context and respectful representation and cultural safety and humility in health care.